Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa swore in 8 new cabinet ministers on Monday but has kept himself as minister of finance as he continued to defy calls to resign from anti-government protestors.

Since the appointment of Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister earlier this month, Rajapaksa has now appointed a total of 10 new ministers.

Despite a 40,000 metric tonne consignment of petrol having arrived in Sri Lanka under an Indian credit facility just yesterday, the country’s cabinet has cleared a proposal to seek a further US$500 million from New Delhi for more.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power spoke with newly appointed Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe earlier today, where she reiterated “her support to the people of Sri Lanka” and “stressed the need to urgently undertake political and economic reforms”.

Hundreds of people were reportedly arrested by Tamil Nadu police officers on Sunday, as they attempted to mark the 13^th anniversary of the massacre of Tamils by the Sri Lankan state.

(Photo of Sri Lankan Garment Workers, Credit ILO Asia-Pacific)

A shipment of urgently needed medicines, rice and milk powder from Tamil Nadu arrived in Sri Lanka on Sunday, as the island’s economic crisis continues.

Sri Lanka’s Special Task Force has reportedly arrested as many as 21 Tamils last week, as they prepared to flee the island to seek asylum abroad.

As many as 42 Eelam Tamil asylum-seekers have launched a hunger strike after eight months of being detained on a military base 3,000 miles south of India, as a plea to the UK government to allow them to seek asylum in another country.  

The 42 refugees are part of a group of 89 Eelam Tamils, including 20 children who set out from southern India in a fishing boat in late September 2021 in the hopes of claiming asylum in Canada. Most of the group fled to India years earlier to escape death and violence during the culmination of the Tamil Genocide in Mullivaikkal of 2009. At least one of the asylum seekers took part in the Pottuvil to Polikandy (P2P) protest rally last year

Vivekanandan Piriyangan has been hospitalised after being brutally assaulted by thugs with close ties to Sri Lankan military intelligence for organising the commemoration event in Mullivaikkal earlier this week. 

The National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT) said the Canadian parliament's recognition of the the Tamil genocide is an "important step in the right direction" and called on other countries to follow suit to "help achieve justice for the victims of Tamil Genocide."

In a statement thanking the Canadian House of Commons for passing the motion ealrier this week, the NCCT said:

Sri Lanka's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement saying it “categorically rejects” the unanimous motion by the Canadian government to recognise May 18 as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day.

In a statement reacting to the recognition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs states: 

Japan announced its pledge of US$1.5 million in emergency medical aid to Sri Lanka as the island continues to deal with it's worsening economic crisis.

Yesterday, Tamil Canadians gathered in Scarborough and Ottawa to mark the newly recognized Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day. 

As Tamils in the homeland travelled to the Mullivaikal memorial site to commemorate Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day, People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) documented the proliferation of Sri Lankan military checkpoints at key locations, situated along roads leading to the site.